Sounds of Silence

What is it about the country that evokes the most unbelievable deep sleeps, dreams and early morning rises?

August 23, 2011 | | Blogs | Community | Leisure | Red Squirrel Musings

The moon is so bright I don’t have to put a light on in the house. It is 3:33 a.m. Why am I awake? What is it about the country that evokes the most unbelievable deep sleeps, dreams and early morning rises? I equate it to the sounds of silence. All day long, we are unknowingly or knowingly assaulted with a plethora of sounds. Bits of lots of things! Cars. Planes. People. Horses. Dogs. Cows. Birds. Summer days packed with gardening, weeding, chores of every magnitude, and laundry, line after line (where does it all come from!)  Life’s pace dictated on plant needs, bird feedings, in short, whatever nature has pronounced as the day’s activities! (Whoever thought they would become the master of their own domain after moving to the country neglected to read the “honey do list” of the previous owners!) When twilight basks its glow over my little peace of heaven, cocktail hour becomes a battle with the cats for domination of the only comfy chaise on the deck!  They win, of course, every time. I grump my tired body into a chair set out for recycling! Not sure what happens after that because I often fall asleep even before the setting sun!  When I wake in the nether hours, nothing make any sense, other than the crooked neck and numb legs, and possibly the broken martini glass lying beside my limp arm! I’ve come to think it’s the lack of noise. There’s only a whisper of a breeze displacing leaves, a creek babbling over a rocks, a call of a buck in the side field, the distant howl of a lone coyote, or is it a wolf. I am amazed by these sounds of silence. Life cruising along on slightly different audible level.

I moved to the country hoping for quiet. Peace…well that’s right up there with happiness and the meaning of life. I don’t look for them, I hope for them, I wish for them, I work towards them, or they work towards me.

About the Author More by Christine Thomas

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